31 Free Writing Contests: Legitimate Competitions With Cash Prizes

When I was about 12, I saw an ad in a magazine for a poetry contest that sounded fancy and impressive, something like “International Library of Poetry.” I bled poetry at that age, so I crossed my fingers and sent in a poem I’d been slaving over for weeks.

And, lo and behold, the people behind the contest quickly wrote back to tell me my poem had been selected as a winner!

I was speechless with honor. Of the thousands of poets who must have submitted to the contest — no doubt many of them adults much wiser and more skilled than me — my poem had been chosen to be featured in an exclusive, hardcover anthology! And honored on a something-karat-gold plaque!

Of course, I had to pay $50 if I wanted to see my work in print in the anthology, and I had to pay another $100 if I wanted the plaque. Those were the only “prizes.”

Sadly, not much has changed when it comes to companies trying to take advantage of writers who want a chance at recognition and maybe a little bit of money. Google the term “writing contests,” and you’ll come up with approximately 8 million results. It can be hard for a writer to know where to start looking for competitions, and how to tell if they’re legitimate or not.

So I’ve done the legwork for you.

Here are 31 reputable, well-reviewed, free writing contests for poets, fiction writers, essayists and more.Some legitimate contests do charge a small entry or “reading” fee, but often a fee can be a red flag for a scam, so you may want to stick to free contests — and there are certainly enough of them.

Fiction and nonfiction writing contests

Ready to share your novel or personal essay with the world? Whether you’re a newbie or more established writer, you’re likely eligible for a few of these contests.

Whatever your feelings about L. Ron Hubbard’s work and philosophy, the prizes for this regular contest are nothing to sneeze at. Every three months, winners earn $1,000, $750 and $500, or an additional annual grand prize worth $5,000.

Submissions must be short stories or novelettes (up to 17,000 words) in the genre of science fiction or fantasy, and new and amateur writers are welcome to apply.

Awarded to “the most promising and innovative literary nonfiction project by a writer not yet established in the genre,” this prize provides a $12,000 advance and publication by Graywolf Press.

If you live in the U.S. and have published at least one book (in any genre), you’re eligible to submit a current manuscript in progress for consideration. The judges look for winners who push the boundaries of traditional literary nonfiction.

Deadline: Contest is every other year, with the last one running in 2016. The 2018 deadline was January 31st.

Presented by St. Martin’s Press and WORDHARVEST, this prize awards the best first mystery novel set in the Southwest with $10,000 and publication by St. Martin’s Press.

It’s open to professional or non-professional writers who have not yet had a mystery published, and there are specific guidelines for the structure of your story: “Murder or another serious crime or crimes must be at the heart of the story, with emphasis on the solution rather than the details of the crime.”

This biannual prize honors mid-career writers who have recently published their third, fourth or fifth work of fiction. The winner receives $50,000 but must be able to appear at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY to deliver a talk on their work and teach a mini-workshop in fiction to St. Francis students.

Deadline: Biannually; the deadline for work published between June 2017 and May 2019 has not yet been announced.

This $10,000 award recognizes “young authors,” which the rules define as any author aged 35 or younger. Submit any novel or short story published or scheduled to be published in the calendar year. Works must be written for adults; children’s or YA pieces are ineligible.

Deadline: Annually in the fall (most recently in August or September). Deadline for submissions for 2018 awards was December 31, 2017. Deadline for 2019 awards TBA.

This boutique publishing firm offers a $300 cash prize to its contest winner. Submit a novel of 20,000 words or more in any fiction genre (no fanfic, short stories or poetry) and if it’s selected, Inkitt will award you $300 in cash, special promotion on its contest winners list, as well as eligibility for future publishing deals!

Residencies aren’t just for published authors. Lake Forest College and &NOW Books offers a three-week residency to emerging, unpublished poets and fiction writers under the age of 40. The winner will receive housing and campus meals, $10,000 and publication of their manuscript. They are expected to participate in the Lake Forest Literary Festival and give presentations.

Deadline: Annually; 2018 has passed and 2019 deadline is not yet announced.

Presented by Lee & Low Books, an award-winning children’s book publisher, this award is given for a previously unpublished children’s picture book manuscript (of no more than 1,500 words) written by a writer of color.

The winner receives $1,000 cash and a standard publication contract. You may submit up to two manuscripts.

Deadline: Submissions must be postmarked between May 1 and September 30 each year.

This contest aims to provide visibility for emerging African American fiction writers and to enable them to focus on their writing by awarding a $10,000 cash prize. Eligible authors should submit a work of fiction, such as a novel or short story collection, published in the calendar year.

Presented by the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival, this annual prize awards $500 cash for “the best Brooklyn-focused non-fiction essay which is set in Brooklyn and is about Brooklyn and/or Brooklyn people/characters.” (So it’s Brooklyn-centric, if you haven’t picked up on that yet.)

Submissions should be four to 10 pages (up to 2,500 words), and five authors will be chosen to read and discuss their submissions at the annual December event.

Fiction and nonfiction writers who have recently published a book that “contributes to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures” are eligible for this award, which offers $10,000 cash as well media and publicity opportunities.

Submissions must be published in the prior year (so books published in 2016 are eligible for the 2017 award).

Deadline: Annual submission window is September 1 through December 31.

Presented by the Arts Club of Washington, this award seeks to honor nonfiction books that deal with “any artistic discipline (visual, literary, performing, or media arts, as well as cross-disciplinary works).” This may include criticism, art history, memoirs and biographies, and essays.

Deadline: Annually in the last quarter of the year; the 2018 deadline has not yet been announced.

If you’re a war buff, this competition is for you. It awards $5,000 to the best piece of fiction set during a period when the U.S. was at war (war may either be the main plot of the piece or simply provide the setting). Submissions may be adult or YA novels.

Deadline: Annually on December 1.

16. Friends of American Writers Chicago Awards

Authors must reside in the state of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin — or they must set their book in one of those locations. Prize amounts vary from year to year but are typically between $500 and $2,000.

Deadline: Annually at the end of the year; 2017 deadline has not yet been announced.

Hektoen International, an online journal dedicated to medical humanities, offers two prizes annually for essays of no more than 1,600 words in two categories.

The Grand Prize of $1,200 is given for an essay suited for their Famous Hospitals section, while a Silver Prize of $1,000 is given to the best essay suited for the sections of Art Flashes, Literary Vignettes, Moments in History or Physicians of Note.

Deadline: Annually; 2018 has passed and 2019 deadline is not yet announced.

Writers 18 and older who have never had a novel published (in any genre) are eligible for this prize, awarded for an original book-length manuscript where “murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story.” The winner receives a publication contract with Minotaur Books and an advance of $10,000 against future royalties.

Deadline: Annually in the last quarter of the year. The deadline for 2018 awards has passed; the deadline for 2019 awards has not yet been announced.

FutureScapes is looking for concrete, substantive pieces that “can provide a roadmap for cities, states, and nations to follow.” If you just want to write the next Hunger Games, this isn’t the contest for you, but if you’re inspired by politics and civic issues, you’ve found the right place. (Case in point: the inaugural theme, “Empowerment Cities,” features a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville.) First place wins $2,000; second place $1,000; and four runners-up will get $500 each. Oh, and did we mention publication in an anthology that will be “distributed to mayors, governors and members of the U.S. Congress”?

This biennial prize of $10,000 honors an American author whose work has had an impact on a critical social justice issue (as did Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin).

In addition to submitting a copy of your book or written work, you must also complete a 250-word statement that describes the tangible impact your piece has made in the world and outlining any social justice work you perform outside of your writing.

Deadline: Annually; deadline for 2018 awards has passed, and the deadline for 2019 has not yet been announced.

Creative nonfiction essays of no more than 5,000 words on any subject, are eligible for consideration for this award, whose winner receives $250 and publication in Lunch Ticket, the literary and art journal produced by the MFA community of Antioch University Los Angeles.

Works must not have been published elsewhere. Award winners are required to submit a 100-word biography, recent photo and a short note thanking the Woods family for their generosity and support.

Deadlines: Biannual reading periods are the month of February for the Summer/Fall issue and the month of August for the Winter/Spring issue.

This contest seeks to foster collaborations between artists and writers. Select a piece of artwork from the gallery provided and submit a short story inspired by it and you could win $350 — plus a spot in a future art book showcasing these collaborations. Short stories should be between 2,000 – 5,000 words.

Deadline: Annually; 2018 has passed and 2019 deadline is not yet announced.

For young writers ages 13-18, this cool contest also serves as a mini writer’s camp. Recognizing that “a first draft is never perfect,” submissions actually receive peer review by authors, writing teachers and other experts and writers are given the chance to revise their pieces based on this feedback before submitting them for final prize consideration. There’s a $100 prize for the winner and $50 for the runner-up (plus $50 for the best peer-reviewer). All three are featured on Write the World’s blog alongside comments from a guest judge. And since each month’s prompt is from a different genre, developing writers get a chance to test out different styles.

Stuck with writer’s block and looking for a way to jumpstart your escape? Prose offers weekly challenges meant to spark your creativity; many are just for fun, but look for the weekly numbered challengesposted by Prose (rather than community members or sponsors) for a chance to win money.

Prizes are typically between $100 – $200 and word counts are low — some as low as under 150, some as high as 500, but all say “quality beats quantity.” So even if all you get from the prompt is a chance to flex your brain, it’s not a bad deal.

Deadline: Weekly.

Poetry contests

Curious about opportunities for poets? Your stanzas — rhyming or not — could be worth a fair amount of money in these competitions.

Open to African American poets, previously published or not, this award provides a $500 prize and publication by Boardside Lotus Press for the best book-length collection of poems (approximately 60 to 90 pages).

If you’re already a published poet, this is the award for you; it’s given for a second book of poetry due to come out in the forthcoming year. The winner receives $5,000 and an all-expenses-paid week-long residency. In addition, copies of her book are distributed to the 1,000 members of the Academy of American Poets.

The Brunel University African Poetry Prize is a new prize that grants £3,000 to a poet who was born in Africa, is a national of an African country or has African parents, who has not yet had a full-length book of poetry published. (U.S. citizens qualify.) To submit, you’ll need 10 poems.

Claremont Graduate University presents two awards each year to poets they deem to be “outstanding.” The Kate Tufts Poetry Award grants $10,000 for a published first book of poetry that shows promise.

The Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award grants a mammoth $100,000 for a published book of poetry by an an established or mid-career poet.

Deadline: Books published between July of the previous year and June 30 of the current year are eligible for the following year’s prize (i.e. award for 2018 was for works publishing between between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017). Deadline for 2018 awards has passed, their next deadline is July 1, 2018 (for book published between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018).

First-generation immigrants have a change to win $10,000 and publication by Restless Books for telling their stories (real or imagined). The contest alternates annually between fiction (novel or short story collection) and nonfiction (memoir, essay collection, narrative nonfiction). In 2018, it will go to a work of fiction of at least 45,000 words; 2019 will be nonfiction.

Deadline: Annually; 2018 has passed and 2019 deadline is not yet announced.

Writing contests with multiple categories

Some contests accept submissions in multiple categories, so you could submit a novella as well as a poem or other work.

(Editor’s note: We were so excited to include this competition that we overlooked its entry fees. We’ll leave it in the post for those interested in submitting their work, but please note that this contest is not free.)

One of the longest-running writing competitions — it’s now in its 83rd year — this contest spotlights up and coming writers in a number of categories, including Memoirs/Personal Essay, Magazine Feature Article and Genre Short story.

The Grand Prize winner gets $5,000, a feature in Writer’s Digest magazine, a paid trip to a writing conference and more. Runners-up earn prizes in first through tenth places.

Deadline: Annually; May 4, 2018.

Where to find more legitimate, free writing contests

Looking for more opportunities to submit your work to writing contests? Here are a few great sites to keep an eye on.

A number of the contests found on our list came highly recommended by this site, which compiles some of the best free literary contests out there. You can sort contests by recommendation level (Highly Recommended, Recommended or Neutral), view plenty of info on requirements and even see which contests are better for beginners, intermediate writers and pros.

Another fantastic source for legitimate writing contests I consulted when compiling this list, Poets & Writers vets competitions, contests, awards and grants to make sure they’re following legitimate practises and policies. It’s worth checking out regularly as it features both annual and one-time contests.

Writer, poet and editor Cathy Bryant sources legitimate, free-to-enter writing contests and calls for submission. She releases a new list of contests and calls each month, so check back monthly for new opportunities.

Are you planning to enter any writing contests this year? Which ones?

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

This post originally ran in February 2016. We updated it in April 2018.

349 comments

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What a brilliant list! Thank you. Thank you too for the mention of Comps and Calls – I love finding free writing competitions, and some of them have very impressive prizes. I’m one of those old-fashioned writers who think that we should be paid for our work – and free comps are a great way of achieving that.

While free writing contests are definitely great, it would be a little odd to overlook ones with fees. A lot of times you will be paying a fee somewhere along the way, it’s just nice when it’s upfront and not in the form of stealing your work. Check this one out, insider tip:
seattlewritingcontest.com

Good advice, Tiffany. For example, the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition (https://www.wclibrary.info/erma/) opens for entries on December 4, 2017, and there is a $15 fee which goes to fund four prizes ($500 to each winner plus a free registration, valued at $400+, to the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop at the University of Dayton, April 2018). Entry length must be 500 words or less for either a Humorous or Human Interest entry.

Our university just launched a new competition (no entry fee, no gimmicks) called FutureScapes. We’re an innovation office, and we’re looking for help from writers to help us envision cities of the future. Hugo-Award winning author Mary Robinette Kowal will be our judge this inaugural year. $2,000 for first place.

The is a Mini Essay Writing Contest at biopage.com and there is no entry fee. The top prize is $1,000 and three runner-ups can win $200 each, which may be running bi-monthly. It is for really short essays with a limit of 1,000 words.

In the age of social media with majority of postings are pictures and videos, Biopage likes to encourage people to write – write about themselves, write their life stories and life experiences.

Old fashioned notions were/are just once legitimate notions of claims for money or what else, when in a time there were hardly or very little amount of writing gigs to get; let alone having someone getting paid for it. Now it is like there are too many people as working in the business here of transposing things across for a living. That really the only thing these vetted competitions do now is, just bunch up a bunch of people who cannot write, among judges judging as judges cannot much write either, and they sit around give a small vagabond gift amount of money in discovery for those who suck less at it. As really a sign should go up before hand about how real writers we really need not to apply here anymore. As none of the spirit of writing is left of writing. Everyone writes politically correct as only to affirm the lack for want of any real creativity getting dispersed.

Amen to that! I’ve read winners’ stories of a certain contest that is held by a magazine every year which I will not name and when I see the judges’ names, I think “Well, they don’t know anything about writing!” No wonder this was chosen.

While I like how your not afraid to speak your mind, and I really have no say in what you put in your books, could you please try not to offend too many people? This is just a suggestion, so feel free to do whatever you like.

Were do I find the legitmate ways to to get paid for entering contests? many are
scams so far that I researched, and entered. please let me know thanks.
I would like to find work online and get paid weekly by check through the mail
do you know of such?

I see you havent included the South African Writers college competition – held annually..its free to enter and the 1st prize is R10,000..
The theme this year is “A person’s world is only as big as his heart”
Deadline April 30th
Only open to South African writers who have not been published.
Send entries to Nichola@sawriterscollege.co.za

I’d check the specific guidelines for each contest. Some specify whether situations like self-publication are acceptable or not. If the guidelines don’t go into any detail on that, you could always try contacting the organization sponsoring the contest.

I’m not sure about pulling down something that HAS previously been published, however. That feels like a risky gamble that might get you in trouble.

Thanks, Kelly, for this interesting article and list. One does have to watch out for scams and ineffective ways of publishing your work. And entering legitimate writing contests sounds a lot more challenging and rewarding.

When I was a college student, I had written some poems and essays, and was encouraged by friends to get them published. Being the babe in the woods I was at the time, I got about 30 to 40 copies published through a local “vanity press,” which cost me about $80 at the time. Learned my lesson to avoid being so vain.

Correction: the Writer’s Digest contests are NOT free to enter. There are different fees listed on the site, as follows:

“Early-Bird Entry fees are $25 for the first manuscript; $20 for each additional entry submitted during the same transaction. Poems are $15 for the first entry; $10 for each additional poem submitted submitted during the same transaction. Entries submitted after the May 4, 2015 Early-Bird deadline are $30 for the first manuscript; $25 for each additional entry submitted during the same transaction. Poems are $20 for the first entry; $15 for each additional poem submitted submitted during the same transaction.”

I’m just so stunned that the horrid poetry-competition people had so little concern for such a young aspirant poet, what a sick twisted lot they are, and you’re right, this kind of dream-baiting continues. Sharks and charlatans all, but the good thing is that you didn’t give up on your dream of writing, so you go girl -go for gold and more power to you!

Sadly, there are all sorts of ways writers and wannabe writers can fall into the wrong hands, from scam competitions to content mills that pay pennies per word. It’s all about knowing where to look for the legitimate resources. (This site is a great place to start.) 🙂

I wrote a piece to this site called the Eber & Wein publishing.
how well do you know about them? is this site scam? I never
sent in any money I was told I could win cash, and prizes, and
my name can be in this analogy. then you have to buy that.

Great list of resources for free contests. I quite often scour Poets & Writers for possibilities and have heard of some of the others, like Story Circle Network, but some of these were quite new to me. Appreciate the time it takes to curate such a list and so glad you shared it with us. I’ll be passing it along to some of my friends and followers.

This is well time for me and I am excited. I’m looking for ways to gain money for my Master’s and get recognized for the love of my heart: writing. I’m applying to some now and even composing new pieces. I’ve even set aside a certain amount of money that I’m writing to give to enter.

I love to write as well! I am only ten years old though, so I probably won’t be able to enter many contests even if I wanted to. I’m writing a novel called Cat Quest. Its not childish and stupid. I’m actually serious. I work on it about every other day or when I get time. I’m not lying. Could you experienced authors give me some tips?

We provide a contest where you get paid either way, so long as you make the cut. It’s a bit different from the average writing contest, in that it is a public head to head battle. Check out thewritersarena.com for more info.

At FanStory.com we have a membership fee $6.95 per month (or $48 for one year or $67 for two years). With the membership fee you can enter all of our contests at no charge. That’s over 50 contests every month. Some have a cash prize ($100) and others are just for the fun of the competition.

Hey.. I have a short story of my stolen childhood.. Its a memoir.. It has touched a lot of ppl nd its very deep.. A lot of ppl who have read it has gained goose bumps nd a lot of others has related a lot to it.. I have councillors stating I should get it published as its very helpful to thoughts who have been through similar.. I write a lot about life nd the deeper I go with my words the more ppl feel it.. I have had a few ppl state they felt like it was happening to them the words stand out so much.. The only problem is as u see here with this paragraph I’m not so good with my editing.. I don’t know how or where to start with getting my writing seen to for hell in weather I can get my words out there.. I wouldn’t mind starting with competitions but its also great to have someone around that knows where nd how to help me start to get this out there.. My email is mines_l@yahoo.com I got a feeling this is a long shot but I’m keen to start somewhere.. It would be a great honor if u could pls give me some advice on where or how to start.. If u could pls email me I will be an honour